Category: the writing life

When we put a pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, a process takes place in our head. Words grow into phrases and paragraphs. Thoughts or concepts grow into descriptions, statements and ideas. Reviews and re-writes grow towards the completed project. The work may be scholarly and grammatically OK, but will it be memorable? Will it be cold, one-dimensional and bore us to death, or will it come to life?

The poet William Wordsworth counseled writers to “fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” Writing from the heart we open ourselves to the life force that comes through the DNA that is the very ground of our being. It is through our DNA that we connect to the past and through which we relate to all that is around us. But what is it in the DNA? What is the essential stuff that has been there since the big bang: driven creation of the heavens, stars and planets, and evolved human life from a cellular start to self-awareness and more to come? It is the breath of life, which is more than the air we breath. It is that powerful spirit which, in human terms, comes from the heart and gives life to all evolving matter.

Could it be that our writing/blogging, anything that we do, will only truly come to life when it comes from the heart?